Blow Cold the Season
by WritingPurple
Summary: A series of winter-themed shortfics, following Stevie and Zander as they are away at college. #13: Stevie and Zander have a snowman-off.
1. sweaters

**A/N:** So the plan here is to post one a day until Christmas (I've already written several in advance, so I should hopefully be able to keep up the pace). Please note that in my head winter starts in like October, so a lot of these are going to be actually technically set in the fall, but… whatever. THE POINT HERE IS CUTE COLD-WEATHER FLUFF OKAY.

**sweaters**

Zander can't help but laugh when he goes to meet Stevie for coffee before their music theory class and finds she's wearing one of his sweaters. "When did you borrow that?" he asks as he slides into the seat across from her (his drink is already waiting for him; she knows his usual).

"Last week when you passed out in the middle of studying for that chem quiz," she says, giving him an innocent grin. "And who said anything about borrowing?"

"Stevieeeeeeeee."

"Zandeeeeeeeer."

"You're not the only one who wears my clothes, you know," he gripes. "I wear them sometimes, too."

Stevie snorts. "Please, you could clothe an entire third-world country from your closet and still have enough left over to wear a different outfit every day for a month."

"You're exaggerating."

"Barely." He feels her foot nudge his leg under the table as she pokes out her tongue at him, teasing. He nudges her back. (_Are they playing footsie?_ some part of his brain wonders, dimly, but he shuts down that thought almost immediately).

They compare notes and homework assignments for a half-hour or so before they walk to class together. The air outside is frigid, holding the promise (or threat, depending how you look at it) of snow, and the second they step outside the cold turns Stevie's cheeks the same bright red as the sweater.

"You know," Zander begins as they shuffle through a patch of crunchy, newly-fallen leaves, "you might as well keep it. The sweater, I mean. Looks good on you."

Stevie looks at him in surprise, peering at him from under her grey beanie, and he's not sure if it's just because they've been outside for a while but her cheeks seem redder than they were a moment ago.

"I mean," he continues quickly, "it looked better on me, of course, but-"

She just rolls her eyes at him and speeds up her pace a little, leaving him hurrying to catch up.


	2. snowball fights

**snowball fights**

There's snow on the ground one Friday morning when Stevie wakes; a good three inches or so coating everything in sight. She bundles up in the red sweater she stole from Zander a couple weeks earlier and a coat she nicked from one of her brothers back when she was in high school and rushes out into it, feeling very much like a kid again.

"I've only seen snow twice," she explains to Zander later, when he grins at the way she keeps looking behind her to see the tracks her boots leave.

The snow gets a little less fun when Zander sneaks up behind her at lunchtime and crams a snowball down the back of her shirt. Her shriek is so loud that everyone in the cafeteria turns to look at her. She shoots him a look of pure murder (she's picked it up from her mother over the years) and he squeaks out "I'm gonna go get some soup" before bolting.

When he gets back with his lunch she pretends like the whole thing never happened, and while he's jumpy around her for a good fifteen minutes he eventually relaxes, likely figuring he got off easy. It's not until after lunch, when they're walking to his room to study, that she discreetly scoops up a handful of snow as they walk past a bench and shoves it straight in his face. His completely undignified squeal is enough to send her into peals of laughter.

Which end abruptly when Zander recovers enough to nail her in the chest with a snowball.

Things escalate quickly into an all-out snowball war, with other students giving them a wide berth so as not to get hit by stray projectiles. By the time they call a truce they're both covered head to toe in snow. Stevie's face sports a bright red patch just below her eye where Zander accidentally pegged her (he'd been trying to knock her beanie off her head, he'd sheepishly explained).

"Really didn't mean to get you there," Zander murmurs later as they sit and defrost in his room. He's peering intently at her, concerned, and his hand comes up to her face, fingertips brushing the skin below her eye. She flinches at the touch and he pulls his hand away quickly, eyes wide. "Oh man, does it hurt? I'm so sorry."

Stevie shakes her head. "N-no," she says, surprised to find a little bit of a stammer in her voice. She chews her lip, her eyes flicking to his and then away almost as quickly. "No, it doesn't hurt."


	3. hot chocolate

**A/N:** This is pretty much a direct follow-up to the previous one. Also, in case it's not clear, I'm switching back and forth between Zander's and Stevie's POVs.

**hot chocolate**

Even though Stevie insists she's fine Zander still feels terrible, so he offers to make hot chocolate (he's out of coffee) for the two of them. It's Friday, after all; the studying can wait a bit. He moves about his tiny dorm room, gathering mugs and envelopes of hot chocolate, while Stevie sits on his bed underneath the heater and lets the warm air dry the last of the now-melted remains of their snowball fight. Once it's ready he sits beside her and passes her a mug.

They're quiet for a while, holding the hot cups gingerly, sipping carefully so as not to scald their tongues. From where they are they have a clear view out the window to the courtyard below. The snow's started up again, and a few students are hurrying past, trying to get to classes or home to get out of the cold. Zander's suddenly grateful that his classes end at noon on Fridays.

"It's so different from California, isn't it?" Stevie says suddenly, nodding at the window. He resists the urge to laugh. Understatement of the century.

"Homesick?" he asks.

"Maybe a little."

He leans into her. "Me too," he admits. He doesn't add that having her here too takes away the worst of it, makes it so that he hardly thinks about home being 3000 miles away because some of home is with him.

"Helps that you're here, though." Stevie's voice echoes his thoughts. He looks over at her, but she's staring determinedly out the window. It's hard to tell if she's purposely not looking his direction or if she's just entranced by the snowfall.

"I know what you mean," he says softly, and he sees the hint of a smile tug at the corners of her mouth.


	4. books

**books**

Stevie wakes with a start, sweaty and shaking, and immediately reaches out and turns on the lamp on her nightstand. She takes a couple deep breaths to slow her racing heart. Her roommate's gone like she is every weekend, and right now Stevie's not sure whether to be relieved or upset about that; she doesn't have to worry about waking her up, but at the same time she hates being alone after a nightmare. The details have faded already, but the slightly sick, terrified feeling is still there. When she was a kid her dad used to come in when she had nightmares and read until she fell back asleep, and even though it's been years since she's needed him to do that she's freaked out and upset and lonely and before she knows it she's picking up her phone. Her dad's on the other side of the country, though, so she calls the next best person.

Four rings in, right before it goes to voicemail, he picks up. "Mmmm?"

"Zander?"

"Stevie?" He instantly sounds more awake. "What's the matter?"

"I…." Now that she's got him on the phone she feels stupid and silly and she shakes her head. "Nothing. It's nothing. Sorry I woke you up."

"It's not 'nothing' if you're calling at three in the morning, Stevie," Zander says.

She's quiet for a moment, then, "I just… had a bad dream, is all." She can barely hear her own voice; she wonders if Zander even heard her.

There's some rustling sounds coming from Zander's end. "I'll be there in five minutes."

"Z, you really don't have to-"

"Be at the front door of the building to let me in," he says, and then hangs up.

* * *

"You really didn't have to," she tells him again after they make it to her room.

Zander lets out a yawn. "Come on, you called me in the middle of the night. Must've been some nightmare."

She hops up onto her bed. "I don't even really remember it anymore," she admits. "I guess I just… my dad used to come in and read to me when I had nightmares. His voice helped me fall back asleep." While she talks, he crosses the room, pulling open the blinds. She looks at him quizzically. "What are you doing?"

"Watch." He flicks off the overhead light and the room fills with a soft, pink and orange light instead – the streetlamps reflecting off the snow outside. Grabbing a book at random off her desk, he comes to sit on the end of her bed. "Lay down," he says, and she does, burrowing under the covers as he starts to read. "Four-part chorale writing is used to teach and analyze the basic conventions of-"

"Are you seriously reading me to sleep with our music theory book?" Stevie asks sleepily.

He laughs. "I could read you our chem book, if you prefer."

The thought makes her shudder. "I'm good."

He's reading something about harmonizing Bach chorales when she finally falls asleep.


	5. ice skating

**ice skating**

Neither of them go home for Thanksgiving – the plane tickets from New York to California and back just aren't worth it when they'll be heading home for Christmas in a couple weeks anyway – so during the long weekend Zander takes Stevie ice skating.

They're both very excited about the prospect until they get out on the ice and realized they've overlooked one very key issue: Stevie has many good qualities, but natural grace is not one of them. She's flat on her butt before she even has time to shout. Zander winces sympathetically and hauls her to her feet, guiding her carefully over to the wall of the rink.

"Maybe that was a little too fast," he says, by way of apology.

"Y'think?"

"Here." He offers her his arm, but Stevie shakes her head.

"Nuh-uh. This wall and I are friends now."

She looks so serious about it that Zander can't help but laugh. "We'll stay by the wall. You can use one arm to brace yourself. Just give me your other arm." When she still doesn't look fully convinced, he adds, "I won't let you fall again."

Tentatively, she reaches an arm toward him, and he links it tightly with his so as to keep her steady. "If you let go of me I will kill you," she warns.

"I'm not going to," he promises. "Just follow my lead."

Slowly, he leads her once around the rink, giving her instructions and encouragement. There's a couple close calls, but she never falls again, and by the end of the first lap she's already much more steady. Halfway through the second lap he drops her arm to hold her hand instead, giving her a little more freedom to move around while still allowing her a lifeline. By the end of the third lap she's confident enough to let go of the wall, and shortly after she lets go of his hand, too.

"I got it!" she shouts, throwing her arms into the air in triumph. The sudden motion makes her wobble, and Zander shoots forward in case he needs to catch her, but she holds steady.

"Remember to keep moving!" he yells to her as she skates away. She flashes him a thumbs-up.

They spend the rest of the afternoon on the ice; sometimes together, sometimes not. When they do skate together, Stevie's hand always finds his, warm in the cold of the rink.

Her hand finds his later, too, when they turn in their skates and step outside into the wind and snow, and she doesn't let go until he says goodnight to her in front of her dorm.


	6. big jackets

**big jackets**

"I feel like a marshmallow."

Zander's biting back a laugh, and Stevie glares daggers at him. "I mean it!" she continues. "How am I supposed to move in this thing? I feel like the Michelin Man. Or that kid from _A Christmas Story_." Her arms are stuck out at awkward angles from her body, and no matter how hard she tries she can't seem to flatten them.

"Then take it off," he suggests.

"Zander, if I take this jacket off, I will literally freeze to death." It's gotten colder as the weeks have gone on, and her sweater/light jacket combo haven't been cutting it recently. She tries in vain to flatten her arms again. "Never had to wear anything this ridiculous back home," she grumbles.

"Aw, come on," Zander says placatingly, "it's not all bad. For one thing, now you've got a Halloween costume for next year."

She rolls her eyes at him. "Very funny."

"And for another, at least you're a cute marshmallow."

"Don't think I won't shove you into a snowbank, Robbins," she warns.

Clearly, she's not as threatening as she might like to be because he just flings an arm casually around her shoulders. "You are the only girl I've ever met who would threaten me for complimenting them."

For some reason, the comment irritates her even more than the compliment had. "Yeah? Well then, maybe you should save your compliments for one of them." She ducks out from under his arm and refuses to look back at him as she walks away.


	7. sledding

**A/N: ****Sorry this is later than usual; I didn't have this one pre-written and I had stuff to do today, so. Also this one is a continuation of sorts from the previous one.**

**sledding**

Zander texts Stevie later that afternoon to come outside. She appears at the door to her building, looking combative, but the expression fades when she sees him.

"Is that a sled?" she calls from the door.

"Yep," he calls back. "Borrowed it from a friend. I thought we could go, if you wanted."

"Be right back," she says, and when she reappears she's bundled back into the marshmallow jacket from earlier.

"Ready?" he asks, and she jogs over and loops her arm through his free one (the jacket makes it a little difficult, but as he's apparently back on her good side for now he wisely decides to not say a word).

"Lead the way."

* * *

There's a hill on the outskirts of campus that some friends told him about, so it's there they go. They're not the only ones – a few other students are there, too. A girl from their chem class sees them and waves. Zander starts to wave back, but Stevie tugs him rather quickly in the opposite direction.

A lot of the snow has been worn down by previous sledders, but they manage to find to find a mostly-untouched spot a bit away from the others. It's not quite as steep, but they're also less likely to get a face full of frozen mud if they overturn (considering that it's a plastic kiddie sled, he figures there's a high enough chance of the sled tipping that they probably don't want to risk it).

Zander drops the sled at the edge of the hill, and Stevie gives it a quizzical look. "So are we taking turns, or…?"

Right. California girl – probably not overly familiar with sleds. "Well it's a two-person sled, so without two people it flips over really easily."

"So we… ride _together_."

"Yeah."

There's a slight moment of hesitation before, "Okay." She starts to climb in.

"Wait, Stevie, don't-!"

His warning comes too late – Stevie sits down in the front, and the sudden weight tips the sled over the edge and sends it shooting down the hill. She shouts in surprise and the sled wobbles for a ways before overturning about halfway down the hill. Zander half-runs, half-slides down to her.

"I'm not sure you and winter activities mix," he tells her as he helps her up.

"Just get the sled so we can try this again."

Their second attempt goes much better; Zander climbs in first so that his weight balances out the sled. They both push off and then they're whizzing down the hill. Stevie shrieks and Zander wraps his arms around her instinctively to keep them both steady and doesn't let go until the sled coasts to a stop at the bottom.

Stevie twists around to look at him. She's breathless and grinning, with tiny tears in the corners of her eyes; from the wind or her laughter, Zander's not sure. "Again?"

"Again," he agrees.


	8. snow angels

**snow angels**

There's a picture that her dad always carries around in his wallet, of her mother making a snow angel on a Seattle sidewalk back when they were both teens, before either of them moved down to California. Stevie's seen it a million times; she catches her dad looking at it constantly, which is cute but also sort of embarrassing (but then, she's pretty sure her dad's middle name is Embarrassing).

She's never made one before, though. A snow angel, that is. She made a cheese angel that one time in the macaroni pool, but that was goopy and messy and gross and really not at all how she envisions making a snow angel to be. So on the way to class one day, she stops suddenly and flops down in the middle of the walkway.

"What are you doing?" Zander asks her, baffled.

"Making a snow angel," she replies as she lies back in the snow. Some of the snow finds its way into her sleeves and collar as she waves her arms and legs back and forth, but it's not enough to deter her. Zander helps her back to her feet when she finishes, but before he does, she sees him snap a picture of her with his phone.

She catches him looking at it later that day.


	9. fireplaces

**fireplaces**

They study for finals in the lounge in Zander's dorm, because the library's packed and not as quiet as you would expect a library to be and when they run low on snacks or coffee he can just pop back to his room and get more. Plus, it's got a fireplace, which he has to admit is kind of nice considering the snow's started up again (and heavier than before; it's really piling up outside).

It's late the night before their chem final; so late it's early. They're both sitting on the floor with books and papers spread out around them, using the coffee table in front of the fireplace as a workspace. Zander finishes working out a review problem and looks up to compare answers with Stevie only to find that she's fallen asleep, head resting on her arms.

"Stevie," he whispers, poking her in the shoulder with the eraser end of his pencil. Nothing. "Stevie," he says again, crawling around the table to shake her shoulder. "Steves, wake up."

Stevie mumbles something unintelligible into her arms.

He shakes her again, just a little. "C'mon, Stevie, we should probably get you back to your room."

"Ten minutes," she says, voice thick with sleep. "Then… study more."

Zander sighs. "No, come on. It's late and I think we've probably done all the studying we can."

"Ten minutes," she insists, sliding herself off of the table. Before he can protest, she's lying down facing the fireplace, her head in his lap.

"Stevie-" he starts, but she's already out again. Sighing, he reaches carefully for his jacket, trying to move as little as possible so he doesn't disturb her, and covers her with it. Ten minutes, he allows, and then he'll get her back to her room so she can get some actual sleep.

It takes less than ten minutes, though, of listening to Stevie's deep, even breathing and watching the light from the fire flicker on her face for him to realize that he's probably in love with his best friend and things are really, really going to suck from now on.


	10. snowed in

**A/N: **Sorry this is somewhat late; it wound up quite a bit longer than the others and also I don't post anything without the approval of my beta, who is rather busy with finals at the moment (thank you for taking the time to read this, dear).  
Also, fair warning: it is entirely possible that tomorrow's fic will either be very very late or will not be posted until Thursday. There are a couple reasons for this. 1) I am a college student, and I have a final tomorrow afternoon and then immediately after said final I have to start a three+ hour trek back home to see my family. I haven't seen them in months, so I'm not even sure how much I'll be online tomorrow night, if at all. 2) Tomorrow's fic will also be long, possibly even longer than this as I'm wrapping this particular arc that I'm on. It's also for the prompt that everyone's been waiting for (I think you can guess), so I don't want to half-ass it. I'll make an attempt to do it tonight so I can post it before I leave tomorrow, but I also have to study tonight, so we'll see. On the chance that I DO have to postpone it until Thursday, I promise I'll try to make it worth the wait.

**snowed in**

Getting to the airport goes smoothly (for the most part), but it's the last thing that does.

The line through security is way longer than they anticipated. Somehow, it hadn't really occurred to either of them that everyone else would be going home for Christmas, too. When they finally make it through to the end, Zander sets off the metal detector about ten times before they pull him off to the side to do a pat-down. (It turns out there was some weird metal embedded in his designer jeans and Stevie has to stop herself from throttling him.) With only a few minutes until their flight is supposed to start boarding, they rush to their gate…

…only to find that their flight's been delayed due to the snow.

Stevie groans and sinks into the nearest chair, dropping her carry-on unceremoniously on the ground. Zander sits down next to her, and she immediately turns and buries her face in his shoulder. She feels him tense, for just a moment, but before she can think much about it he relaxes and wraps his arms around her.

"It's just a delay, Stevie," he says.

"I know," she mumbles against his collarbone, "but I want to go _home_."

He shifts a little and grabs her arms, pushing her back gently so that she's sitting up. "Look, why don't you call your parents and let them know we'll be a bit late, and I'll go get us some coffee?"

"You know what I want?" she asks as she digs her cell phone out of her pocket.

Zander pulls a look of mock offense. "Of course I do. I can't believe you would doubt me." Despite herself, she laughs, and he winks. "Be right back," he tells her as he heads off (she hopes he's going the right direction).

Her mom pitches a fit, of course; not at her, but at the airline, the weather, New York City – everything she can think of. Stevie can hear her father in the background, trying to calm her, but it's futile and eventually he just takes the phone. "Just give us another call before you board, okay, Steves?" he says.

Zander comes back with coffee right as she's hanging up. "The board says the flight's only delayed an hour," he tells her, jerking his head toward a big electronic display.

"Good." She takes the cup he hands her and sips, letting the familiar taste and warmth work its way through her body and unwind her a little.

"Not like you to get worked up like that." He sits back down next to her, nudging her gently.

Sighing, she runs her free hand through her hair. "I'm just ready to be home for a while. It's been a long week." They shudder in unison at the thought of their chemistry final. "And I miss everyone. I'm ready to see them all again. Even Molly." She laughs as she says it. Their enmity had faded into frienmity and then into something almost resembling a friendship by the time they graduated. Stevie hadn't quite kept in contact with her after graduation the way she had with everyone else (even Grace had called her up a couple times; phone calls with Grace were an… _interesting_ experience), but she knew Kacey was planning a party once they were all back in California, and she knew Molly would show up even though she'd loudly be telling anyone who would listen that she was only there to make the party less lame.

"Let's not get crazy," Zander jokes.

"Hey, you have to admit she grew up a lot. Besides," she says, raising an eyebrow at him. "_you_ dated her."

"For like a week, okay? You're never going to let that go, are you?"

Stevie laughs. "Nope." She starts to lean into him, but then a thought hits her and she sits up again. "You know, I don't think you dated a girl all quarter." Zander lets out a strangled sound and splutters something incoherent while she thinks back. Nope, not a single girlfriend; he'd barely even noticed that girl from their chem class that had been practically throwing herself at him. Zander Robbins, going a whole three months without dating a girl. That probably hadn't happened since he hit puberty. "What happened to 'man, there's going to be so many cute girls in New York?'"

"Maybe I decided it wasn't as important as I thought," he says, and she's sure he's avoiding looking at her. "Dating the wrong girls, over and over. Didn't seem worth it, I guess."

"But how do you know they're the wrong girls if you haven't dated them?" she presses.

He _does_ look at her then, and after a few seconds she's the one who has to avoid his gaze because she's pretty sure she's seen that look a hundred times but it's never been directed at her before. "I just know," he tells her.


	11. mistletoe

**A/N:** It's finally, finally done. I apologize for the wait - but it IS quite a bit longer than most of the other fics, so. ;) Hopefully I should be able to get back on track now that this one is out of the way. (Fingers crossed.)

**mistletoe**

"You missed it." Zander's voice cuts through the relative quiet; Stevie looks up at him, startled. Clearly she hadn't heard him approach. "Molly just cornered Kevin under some of the mistletoe Kacey hung up. And he didn't even faint when she kissed him."

Stevie laughs. "You're sure it was Kevin?"

"Positive. I'm pretty sure there's no one else at this party who's wearing socks with their sandals."

"That would be Kevin, all right." She raises an eyebrow at him. "So what are you doing out here?"

"Looking for you." He slides in next to her; the little bench barely fits the two of them, even squished together. "What are _you_ doing out here? Aren't you cold?"

"After a month and a half of snow? Please, this is practically tropical."

"Fair point," he concedes.

"Anyway, I just figured I'd come out and get some fresh air. I love Kacey, but sometimes her parties are a little…."

"Much?" Zander supplies.

Stevie nods. "Yeah. And she's put that stupid mistletoe up _everywhere_. I walked into five different people tonight because I was so busy looking up, making sure I wasn't about to stand under any."

"She did get a bit… _generous_ with it." It really was all over the place – hanging over door frames and chairs, randomly dangling from the ceiling….

"She even hung it over where we were playing, which is totally ridiculous. I mean, Nelson's got Grace, and Kevin's got… whatever it is he's got going with Molly. I don't know who she thought was going to be doing all this kissing onstage."

Zander is pretty sure _he_ knows. Kacey'd been side-eyeing both him and Stevie all night, and she'd tried to casually herd them under the mistletoe more than once. Clearly Stevie hadn't noticed, but he had. Kacey wasn't exactly subtle. Fortunately, she hadn't been successful.

Not that he didn't _want_ to kiss Stevie. He'd actually been thinking about it to the point of distraction ever since that night in the lounge. But he didn't want to be coerced into their first kiss in front of a hundred people. That seemed like it might detract from the moment. (Besides, Stevie seemed rather opposed to the idea of mistletoe in general, so she probably wouldn't appreciate being kissed underneath it.)

"Yeah, well. You know Kacey," he says lightly, hoping she won't think too much about it.

She turns to look at him – not easy considering the way they're both pressed together on the bench. "I'm surprised you're not hanging around the mistletoe, actually. There's a lot of girls in there who I bet are just dying to catch you underneath it."

"It hurts that you have such a low opinion of me." He's not entirely joking when he says it.

Stevie leans into him. "Oh, you know I love you," she says, and he knows how she means it but his stomach does a bit of a flip at the words anyway. "But come on. You ran a _kissing booth_ once."

"Once! And it was like two years ago, Stevie. God." Frustrated, he runs a hand through his hair. If it were anyone else, he'd probably laugh it off, but Stevie apparently thinking he was some kind of indiscriminate Casanova who'd go after anything with a rack bothered him for a whole host of reasons. (The worst part was that it wasn't exactly an unfair assessment.)

"I'm just saying that your track record would seem to suggest a house full of mistletoe and girls would be for you what a candy shop is to a little kid. That's all."

"I told you. I'm not interested in being with the wrong girls anymore."

"And every single girl in that house is the wrong girl?"

"Yes." It's not a lie; the two of them are outside, so Stevie's not in the house.

"So there's a right girl, then?" she challenges.

"That would be the idea."

"Do you know who it is?"

"Are we really going to talk about this right now? Here on Kacey's back porch with a party going on?"

"It's as good a place as any."

"It's just someone who's important to me, all right?" he blurts, and then instantly wishes he could take the words back. _God, Zander, could you be any more obvious?_

Stevie's silent for a moment, and he's _sure_ she's working it out, because how could she not? "Do I know her?" she asks finally.

Zander sighs and turns to face her, struck again by how little room there is on the bench; her face is inches from his. "Do I really have to spell it out, Stevie?"

She bristles. "Well, it's not my fault if you're in love with some girl you never even talk about," she begins hotly; "I mean, you'd think you'd at least mention her once or twice to me – we _are_ best friends, or I thought we were, but apparently you've got this secret girlfriend or something and you've never even-"

He kisses her. Her tirade ends rather abruptly.

When he pulls back, Stevie breaks the silence with one word.

"_Oh._"

* * *

Two stories up, Kacey Simon is doing a victory dance.

"See? See? I told you it would work. Didn't I tell you it would work? I told you it would work."

Nelson pokes his head out the window and peers down at his two friends on the bench below. Next to him, a fishing pole protrudes from the window, and dangling from the hook is a sprig of mistletoe. "I dunno, Kacey," he says, once his head is back inside. "I don't even think they saw the mistletoe at all."

Kacey slings one arm around him and another arm around Grace, nearly knocking the fishing pole from Grace's hands in the process. "They didn't need to see it, Nelson. It just needed to be there. That's the magic of mistletoe."

"Does mistletoe really work like that?" Grace asks, confused.

Nelson just shakes his head. "Of course it doesn't. C'mon, let's go back downstairs before Kevin eats all the good food." Grace pulls the fishing rod back in the window and sets it on Kacey's bed before the two leave, hand in hand.

Kacey leans out the window one more time, just in time to see Stevie lean forward and kiss Zander. She sighs happily.

"I am _such_ a good friend."


	12. quilts

**A/N: **Okay, so I'm still behind. Turns out that when you don't see your friends for three months they miss you and want to hang out with you. Who knew? It also turns out that 7+ hours in a car is not conductive to fic writing, so.

**quilts**

"Hands!"

Zander flings both his hands straight into the air (nearly sending popcorn flying everywhere) and Stevie rolls her eyes, reaching up to pull them down. "You don't need to do that every time he says 'hands,' Zander," she tells him, shooting a glare at her oldest brother, who's just walked in the room.

"He absolutely does," her brother disagrees. He flops down next to Stevie, throwing one arm around her shoulders and using the other to reach for the bowl. "Otherwise, how will I know Robbins isn't besmirching your honor underneath that quilt?"

Zander chokes on a piece of popcorn. Stevie's face wrinkles up at the insinuation. "First of all," she begins, "his hands were on top of the quilt when you walked in. Second of all, no one's besmirching anyone's honor in here, okay? We're _trying_ to watch a movie." She gestures to the TV.

"For now." He wiggles his eyebrows and Stevie elbows him in the stomach, hard.

"Ben, will you please just get out of here?"

"Hands!"

Up go Zander's hands again as another brother waltzes in. Stevie buries her face in her own hands and lets out something between a groan and a yell because _God_ sometimes she hates her brothers.

"Don't worry, I already checked," Benedict says.

"Oh. Good." Adrian squishes in between Zander and the arm of the couch and stuffs a handful of popcorn in his mouth. Zander looks somewhat uncomfortable.

"I swear to God, if you two don't get out now-"

"Hands!"

The twins burst in at opposite ends of the living room. Stevie grabs Zander's hands before he can put them up a third time.

"Oh, looks like you guys beat us to it," one of the twins says, crossing the living room. "Is that A Christmas Story?" He grabs an oversized beanbag chair and pulls it in front of the couch, sinking into it and leaning back so that his head is on Stevie's knee. With a jerk, she knees him hard in the back of the head. "Hey!" he whines.

"And is that popcorn?" The other twin snatches the bowl off of Zander's lap and sits down hard next to his brother in the beanbag chair.

Stevie takes a deep breath. "Okay, look," she says, using her deadly calm voice. Her brothers all exchange nervous glances. "I am going to give you rejects about five seconds to completely vacate the room or I swear I'm going to-"

"Hey," Zander interrupts quietly, and she feels his fingers entwine with her own. "If they want to watch the movie with us, let's let them."

"Hands," one of her brothers says – Stevie doesn't catch which one.

"I _am_ going to hold hands with my girlfriend, though."

Stevie winces but her brothers just laugh. "I like this one, Steves," Benedict says, mussing up her hair. She knocks his hand away.

"You've always liked Zander," she reminds him.

"Yes, but now we officially approve of him. You know, as a boyfriend and all that," Adrian says. The rest of them make noises of assent.

"Who says you have to approve of my boyfriends?" she grumbles. Secretly, though, she's a little pleased, because if anyone ever mattered enough for her to want approval from her brothers, it would be Zander. He gives her hand a squeeze, and she can tell he's glad, too.

The boys all stay until the end of the movie, and when they leave Benedict grabs the quilt that's been covering Zander and Stevie and takes it with him with a "You won't be needing this." Stevie sighs.

"Next time, we're watching a movie at your place."


	13. snowmen

**snowmen**

"I warn you, Stevie," Zander says teasingly, "I got a merit badge in snowman-building when I was in Falcon Scouts."

Stevie just snorts. "So in other words, I'm gonna win."

"Ouch."

"Sorry, Z, but you know that anything you did in Falcon Scouts is questionable at best."

"We'll see who's laughing when we're done. Have you ever even _made_ a snowman?"

"Nope." She shrugs. "But how tough can it be?"

"Oh, it's on now."

They get back to school a couple days before classes start up, and there's still snow on the ground, so they decide to have a snowman-off. They get a half-hour, working on opposite ends of Zander's dorm so their snowmen are hidden from view. When Stevie calls "time!" they meet out in front, both of them furiously rubbing their frozen hands together to work some feeling back into them. Zander grabs Stevie's hands, bringing them to his mouth to breathe hot air onto cold fingers, and she grins at him.

"So, who's first?" she asks.

They play rock-paper-scissors for the honor. Zander wins, so Stevie closes her eyes and he leads her by the hand to his snowman.

"Ta-da!" he announces dramatically, with a grand flourish.

Stevie opens her eyes. Bites her lip. Ducks her head.

"Well?" Zander says, after a moment of silence. "Say something!"

"I don't think I should," she manages to get out.

Zander looks back at his snowman. "It's not _that _bad, is it?"

"Why's it so skinny? It looks like you forgot to feed it."

"Hey!"

"And what's with its face? I think its eyes are kind of uneven..."

Rolling his eyes, Zander folds his arms over his chest. "If you're going to mock my snowman, let's go take a look at yours."

They do. Even Zander has to admit it's a lot better than his. "I thought you said you'd never made a snowman before," he grumbles.

Stevie laughs. "I hadn't. But my uncle's a sculptor. I picked up a few things from him."

"Figures." It really is a very good snowman, which seems a little unfair - she shouldn't get to be a brilliant musician _and _an artist too. "Hey, if you're so good at sculpting, how come you didn't help me with that art contest back in high school?"

Stevie wrinkles her nose at this. "Zander, did I ever _once _help you impress a girl?"

"No, I guess you didn't. Some wingman you were."

"Says the guy who followed me around for months intimidating every guy who every tried to look twice at me." She elbows him.

"I talked to Mark for you!"

"Yeah, and told him I farted like a trucker."

"That was Nelson. _I_ told him you were beautiful."

"Well, that probably explains why he was still convinced we had a thing even after I asked him out."

Zander pulls her into a hug, pressing a kiss to her temple. "We probably should've figured all this out a while ago, huh?"

"Sometimes I think everyone knew before we did," she says, head resting on his shoulder.

"I'm sure they did." He lets her go, but leaves an arm around her. "Come get lunch with me? I'm starving."

"Only if you knock down that snowman of yours first. No one else should have to look at that."

He sighs, shaking his head as they walk off. "You really are your mother's child."


End file.
